Astronomy vacation ideas

Solar eclipses may only last a few minutes but they provide a glorious spur to create lifelong memories around the sky show. And they take place in a host of diverse, distinctive spots. NASA may have used the arid Atacama Desert to stand-in for Mars but their earthly vistas are just as awesome - even once the eclipse has passed. Think salt plains, granite towers. icy fjords and glacial fields beneath star-spangled heavens.

The Northern Lights come imbued by ancient myth. The Inuit thought they were the souls of the dead, while Nordic folklore saw them as the spirits of unmarried maidens. Science more reliably pinpoints speeding solar particles arcing down Earth's polar magnetic fields to smash into upper atmosphere atoms, energising them into the aurora's shimmering green, violet and magenta hues.

The winter landscapes of Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden frame auroral displays like nowhere else on Earth. Some of Europe's most dramatic mountains reach up to touch the shimmering celestial curtain, while Iceland's jet black lava fields provide dramatic contrast. Dark fjords, vast gleaming snowfields or glistening blue glaciers present mesmerising Nordic mirrors to the sky. Each place has favoured spots far from light and people. Peak sightings occur in the depths of winter but displays can occur from October to April.